by
Ronald Wright

by
Lydia Millet

LITERATURE

2012

PAPER

256 PAGES

In Millet's anticipated follow-up to How the Dead Dream, a mild-mannered IRS bureaucrat follows a runaway millionaire into the surreal tropical jungle. The prose has a lovely stillness and has been hailed as a haunting, mesmerizing novel of ideas. (BLZ24, $15.95)

by
Adrian Forsyth |
Ken Miyata

NATURAL HISTORY

1984

PAPER

248 PAGES

FAVORITE

Two uncommonly observant and thoughtful field biologists offer a lucid portrait of the tropics through 17 marvelous essays that introduce the habitats, ecology, plants and animals of the Central and South American rainforests. (GPS13, $16.00)

by
Charles C. Mann

HISTORY

2006

PAPER

560 PAGES

Mann portrays the successes and failures of the complex societies of the Mississippi River, central Mexico, the Andes and the Amazon in this thought-provoking speculative history of the Americas before the arrival of Europeans. (WLD61, $16.95)

by
Dan Koeppel

HISTORY

2008

PAPER

304 PAGES

Koeppel traces the history, natural and otherwise, politics and precarious current status of modern monoculture, touching down in India (world center of banana diversity), Ecuador (world's largest producer) and Central America. (CAM137, $17.00)

by
Ian Peedle

HISTORY

1999

PAPER

100 PAGES

A brief, authoritative guide to the history, cultural heritage, politics and economy of Belize. With maps, photographs and some travel information, it's an excellent synopsis from an unabashedly left-leaning perspective, strong on facts. (BLZ13, $12.95)

by
Stephen Schlesinger
|
Stephen Kinzer

HISTORY

2005

PAPER

331 PAGES

A foreign policy classic first published in 1982, brilliantly written and devastating in its implications. Schlesinger and Kinzer provide a dramatic account of the CIA-backed overthrow of Guatemala's democratically elected government of Jacobo Arbenz in 1954. (CAM82, $22.95)

by
Mary Ellen Miller

ART & ARCHITECTURE

2014

PAPER

256 PAGES

An illustrated overview of the art and architecture of the Maya, making use of the latest discoveries at Tikal, Copan and Palenque to demonstrate the range of Mayan artistic influence. Revised and updated, this new edition includes color illustrations throughout. (MYA20, $20.95)

by
Thomas Quigley

by
Stephen Connely Benz

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

1996

PAPER

212 PAGES

Opening with a long chapter on life in Guatemala City, Benz's memoir moves on to the remote highlands and other little-visited regions. An excellent account of Guatemala's political history, traditions, and indigenous cultures. (GML03, $25.00)

by
Joan Fry

BIOGRAPHY/MEMOIR

2012

PAPER

296 PAGES

The coming-of-age memoir by Joan Fry, a young newlywed, who moves with her anthropologist husband to the jungles of Belize. Her introspective account is interwoven with stories, portraits of locals and traditional recipes. (BLZ22, $16.95)

by
Fiona Reid

FIELD GUIDE

2009

PAPER

384 PAGES

This second edition of Fiona Reid's wonderfully detailed and comprehensive field guide to the mammals of Central America and Southeast Mexico features 59 vivid full-color illustrations. Reid painted most of the creatures in the field, a formidable challenge and -- given the quality of the results -- well worth her while. With parks, and protected areas, habitats, range maps, tracks and natural history. (CAM60, $59.95)

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